‘Dancing With the Stars’ Alum Arrested on Assault and Robbery Charges

Social media influencer Hayes Grier, who competed on Dancing With the Stars, was arrested in Charlotte, North Carolina Friday on outstanding warrants from California for assault and robbery. Grier, 21, shot to fame on the now-defunct social media site Vine, but still has a sizable following, including over 5.6 million Instagram followers. Police believe Grier is responsible for an alleged attack on July 26.

According to the warrants TMZ obtained, a judge found probable cause to charge Grier with the alleged attack of William Markolf on July 26. Grier allegedly assaulted Markolf and stole his $1,200 phone. Markolf suffered serious injuries, including a broken left orbital bone, brain damage, bruised ribs, bleeding from his head, loss of hearing, and more, police said. The circumstances that led to the alleged attack are unknown. Police claim Grier conspired with another man named Luke Foushee, but Foushee has not been arrested yet.

Grier was booked at Mecklenburg County jail for common law robbery, felony conspiracy, and assault serious bodily injury. He is now out on $17,500 bail, the Charlotte Observer reports. His next court hearing is scheduled for Monday morning, but the court records do not specify if the hearing is in California or North Carolina.

Grier became a star on Vine, alongside his older brother Nash. His other older brother is Carolina Panthers backup quarterback Will Grier. Although Twitter shut down Vine in 2016, Grier has maintained a following, with over 880,000 YouTube subscribers and over 5.6 million Instagram followers. In 2015, he became the youngest male contestant in Dancing With the Stars history when he was cast at 15. He was paired with pro dancer Emma Slater and was the fifth eliminated dancer. Grier also appeared in an episode of Hulu’s Freakish and starred in the reality show Top Grier for Verizon’s defunct go90 service.

Grier has not commented on his arrest. Back in 2018, Grier told Us Weekly he felt his authenticity was a reason why he continued cultivating a following despite constant changes on social media. “I continue to be myself. Authenticity is key when you’re a creator and you have stay true to the fans,” he said at the time.

Twitter stopped allowing users to upload Vine videos in October 2016 but allowed users to continue watching the six-second video clips until it shut the archive down in April 2019. “Content that remains on Vine can only be located by using the unique URL of the Vine account, or Tweet URL if the Vine was shared to Twitter, if it has not been deleted or removed,” Twitter notes. Vine co-founder Dom Hofmann launched a successor app called Byte, unaffiliated with Twitter, last year.